Shining City: A Novel Hardcover – February 21, 2017

It has to be difficult making the transition from writing non-fiction tp penning fiction. But Tom Rosenstiel has cleared that hurdle, with his first novel, “Shining City.”As a former teacher of college journalists, my recommended reading list always included the books he wrote (most co-authored with Bill Kovach) and especially “The Elements of Journalism.” The book has become a must-read for both aspiring future political reporters and “old-timers,” who struggle to hold onto the news values described in “Elements.”After a long career as a political writer, as well as a media critic, Rosenstiel is superbly equipped with insights that allowed him to develop a realistic cast of characters for “Shining City,” which begins with the death of a Supreme Court Justice and takes us through the nomination of a replacement. Spoiler alert: There’s a little serial murder along the way.I especially appreciated, in his character development, how he accomplished nuanced peering into the psyches of the elected officials, lobbyists and journalists who populate these 68.3 square miles surrounded by reality where I’ve lived for four decades, Washington, DC. It's hard for me to read my own mind, let alone those of others. Of course, in his reporting career Rosenstiel had to size-up the motivations of countless sources, so I guess that helped.I think my favorite line is near the beginning of Chapter 45 (page 279 in my hardback edition), referencing a delay in a speech supportive of President Nash’s nominee, Judge Madison, by a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee: "Without that, the other Democrats would be putting drywall up without a frame." Where did that come from, I asked myself? Maybe Rosenstiel was having his house renovated when he got to that point in the book? Great metaphor.I had a small problem following the identity of some of the more minor characters, especially on second or third reference, when I probably had failed to pay enough attention to the initial description. But I realize it must be a challenge to find a way to remind the reader, without seeming to be redundant.On a scale of one-to-ten, this first novel gets an easy nine. I’m looking forward to Rosenstiel’s next book and the game many of us long-time Washingtonians found ourselves playing with “Shining City,” trying to guess the real-life characters who make appearances in the book under other names (to protect the guilty?)One last thought comes to mind. In a media culture that has devolved to fake news and alternative facts, it may become harder and harder to employ the labels “fiction” and “non-fiction.” So here’s hoping Rosenstiel doesn’t give up his day job as director of the American Press Institute, where he continues to perform a public service as a media ethics-and-practice guru.

Tom Rosenstiel’s “Shining City” (the title is from Ronald Reagan’s “Shining City on a Hill” speech) is at its best when it describes the political maneuvering that goes on behind the scenes at Supreme Court nominations. The author is a Washington veteran, as he shows well here.Less convincing, however, is the B story, which concerns a serial killer. That seemed out of the author’s expertise entirely. It’s as if he patched it together from Jeffery Deaver’s novels and CBS TV police procedurals.But it’ll keep you reading, and keep you trying to figure out who all the fictional characters are based on. (Ted Cruz is there, very thinly disguised.)The two main characters, Randi Brooks and Peter Rena, are a strange pair (she, a Democrat with a law degree; he GOP and ex-military) who run a consulting firm that solves problems for politicians and, among others, owners of sports teams with players who stray. (The author throws in one of those “before the opening credits” scenes to show you what their normal jobs are.)The president calls them in to “scrub” the qualifications of a supreme court nominee, Judge Madison of California, and as they investigate his background we begin to see how the B story is connected to the A story. During the investigation we meet a large array of characters--staff members who work for Rena and Brooks: Senators; journalists; lawyers; smoke-eyed judge's daughter. Indeed there are so many characters that when the final loose thread is tied up in the last chapter I had long forgotten who that person was. Too bad a list of characters wasn’t included.NOTES AND ASIDES: Graphic violence; ungraphic sex; lucid prose

Shining City, Tom RosenstielSome authors might have shrugged and switched plotlines last year when Congress refused to consider Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee to replace Antonin Scalia. Why bother with a story outdated -- or upstaged -- by the news?Instead, journalist Tom Rosenstiel persisted and has crafted one of the best political novels since Advise and Consent, the 1959 Pulitzer-Prize winning book by The New York Times reporter Allen Drury.Shining City heads straight into the dizzying political labyrinth (now revived) that surrounds the process of persuading Congress to accept a President’s nominee to the Supreme Court.The tale takes fascinating twists. A Democratic President picks a scholarly Republican with a maverick streak of independence and a rascal’s willingness to dash hopes for a smooth consensus.“You know that the process is a sham, don’t you?” says the nominee, Federal Appeals Court Judge Edward Roland Madison of Marin County. His stark appraisal rings true.“’The senators ask questions to curry favor with interest groups. The nominees score points by not actually answering them. No one learns anything. It’s become a disappointing, meaningless ritual. Surviving it says nothing about whether someone would be a thoughtful constitutional jurist,’”Among key characters, a team of savvy consultants led by political opposites Peter Rena (his observations lead the narrative) and Randi Brooks, do the vetting, advising and steering of the President’s nominee.Along the way, Rosenstiel salts the tale with pitch-perfect descriptions of the inner thoughts and worries of modern day political operatives in a capital where relationships are in constant turmoil.One of the reviewer’s favorite characters is Matt Alabama, a network television reporter and friend of Rena since Rena’s days on a Senator’s staff.“’You watch my piece?’” Alabama asks. He must feel insecure about his story on (Supreme Court Justice) Hoffman’s funeral, Rena thinks.“For all his accomplishments, Alabama still agonizes over every story. He feels a sense of responsibility, a desire to do justice to what he covers. It was one reason he hadn’t been jettisoned as network news shrank, became sillier, and then as all of journalism imploded.”Rosenstiel dramatizes a serial killer’s menacing presence and impact in a way that would be criminal to reveal in a review. Suffice to say that it rises to the clever, chilling, tick-tock descriptions of our best modern mystery stories.Shining City delivers a double bonus, the political awareness we associate with Allen Drury and the kind of dazzling crime procedural we expected from Robert B. Parker. -- John Martin